A sizeable CNN gang showed up, except Blitzer who was via satellite from Washington with a pulled hamstring thanks to his treadmill.

John King

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played with a small version of his telestrator next to the coffee urns, indulging critics’ curiosity. Denver is not well wired so it’s a blur on the Google birds-eye view, he observed, while LA is crisp and clear. Look, you can see Housekeeping in your room at the moment, he joked.

Jon Klein, president of CNN, stuck to his mantra: “straight down the middle.” As opposed to liberal/conservative competitors, he means. Sounds bland, but “information is sexy,” he said. Now there’s a slogan.

Blitzer said the network’s DNC coverage won’t be wall-to-wall. With access to party leaders, there will be serious reporting. “We’re not going to simply be stenographers.”
King: “This is the most consequential election of my lifetime. If we can’t make that interesting then I should go back to tending bar.”
The switch to Invesco will require “a little more lifting,” Washington bureau chief David Bohrman said, deftly understating.

Finally, this exchange: “The best television critic in Philadelphia has a question,” my colleague Jon Storm said. “Does saying it makes it so?” Why does CNN keep using that tagline which is essentially an advertisement, he wanted to know.

“We’re glad you noticed. We made our point,” Klein said.

No, the point is, that constant touting of “the best political team in television” is an irritant that undermines the network’s credibility.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.